New Sculptures by Pamela Merory Dernham | February 3 ,2023, Ongoing
Click to collect Pamela Merory Dernham’s artworks >
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE ENTIRE SHOW
JOURNEY OF THE FIGURE WITH PAMELA MERORY DERNHAM
Pamela Merory Dernham composes human interactions by distilling figuration. Her sculptures explore gestures of composition of human convergence. Steel wire lines and silhouetted gels express possibility and diversity of abstract visual body language, intentionally and gracefully.
Following her solo show "This Land We Share", in "Journey of the Figure with Pamela Merory Dernham", the artist further conceives of sculpture as an experiment of human forms in space and motion, unifying the human experience. Ranging from delicate to intimate, figurative line in wire or color gels, her sculptures create compositions that animate life, and lives. Dernham observes contemporary life and social and political interactions toward an art that opens up a world unto itself, capturing either the real, or the imagined. Through her 3D drawings using steel wire, her compositions offer the viewer a chance to see themselves in the distilled line work, innately expressing a visual language that embraces intersectionalism by dismantling barriers of race, economics, religion, gender. These works, while inspired from specific life experiences, are story-evoking and skillfully open entries for personal reflection and interpretation.
"My art is about human connection and reflects the balancing of forces that keep us in relationship to each other. While my education was rooted in representative drawing of the figure from life, in my professional practice I abstract the figure so that it is stripped down to a form that evokes the power of expression through gesture. These dynamic forces operate across gender, race, religion, family, neighborhoods, and communities." —Pamela Merory Dernnham
Covalent Bonds II (2021), 24 x 44 x 1 in. | 29 x 46 x 3 in. (framed), Painted steel wire on wood panel
Click the images below to see details and framed view.
Covalent Bonds III (2022), 28 x 53 x 1.5 in. | 31 x 56 x 3.5 in. (framed), Painted steel wire on wood panel
Click the images below to see details and framed view.
“Covalent bonds occur when atoms share electrons so a stable balance is achieved between the attractive and repulsive forces, resulting in molecules that are more stable. This is a wonderful metaphor for me of what we can have in our relationships.
The elements of the Covalent Bonds series are composed of the many different ways I have used to convey the human figure. They defy the art making imperative to present a cohesive look. They don't live in the same aesthetic neighborhood. And yet, the differences in form and gesture play off against each other creating dynamic and stable compositions that balance the tensions of difference.” — Pamela Merory Dernham
Trapezium (2021), 21 x 26 x 1 in. | 23 x 27 x 3 in. (framed), Painted steel wire on wood panel
Click the images below to see details and framed view.
“As an artist who is female, I have long chafed against the restrictive and constricting definitions of acceptable feminine ability and action. The closer women get to achieving our full selves, the more those who feel threatened by this put pressure on us to conform to lesser expectations for our lives. The figures in Trapezium represent the freedom to express our full selves without the stranglehold of restrictive gender myths. The figures on the left side echo the brashness of Picasso's "Demoiselles d'Avignon" with the extra brio of both female and male genitalia. The figures on the right are a celebratory response to the phrase "Ecce Homo", usually translated as "Behold the Man". I am using it to proclaim the gift to the world of each person, freed from narrow gender definitions. It remains a high-wire act.” — Pamela Merory Dernham
Inside My Head II (2021), 16 x 14 x 1 in. | 18 x 17.5 x 3 in. (framed), Painted steel wire on wood panel
Click the images below to see details and framed view.
“The Inside My Head series is a joyous look at the creative ferment that is always going on in my mind. Part of being an artist is never knowing when or where an idea is going to hit you. It results from stirring up the mixing bowl of every experience, book, movie, music, travel, job, and relationship in your life. The art is in making the idea that emerges into something that excites responses in others.” — Pamela Merory Dernham
Migration Series: The Long View II (2022), 40.5 x 43 x 3.5 in. (framed), Powder-coated steel wire and strip, on panel
Click the images below to see details and framed view.
“Two of the central themes of human history are settlement and migration. Our ancestors sought places where they could find or produce the requirements for at least minimal survival. Some places allowed for the harvest and production of abundance. These places became "home." Why would anyone leave their home? We are all attached to our community and our culture.
When we can no longer provide for ourselves or home is no longer safe, we need to escape and are impelled to migrate. Human-made impetuses to migrate include violence, persecution, war, and economic changes. Forces of nature that impel migration include earthquakes, drought, and storms, increasingly augmented by human-driven climate change.
The figures in my sculptures stand for migrants in every part of the world. They are lean, a symbol of their urgency for relief. They look forward, to the future. They look backwards, at what they left. They stand for who any of us could be in this unpredictable world.” — Pamela Merory Dernham
Migration Series: The Long View III (2022), 44 x 17 x 2 in., Powder-coated steel wire and strip on panel
Click the images below to see details and framed view.
Migration Series: The Long View IV (2022), 51 x 27 x 3.5 in., Powder-coated steel wire and strip, on panel
Click the images below to see details and framed view.
Migration Series: The Long View V (2022), 44 x 16.5 x 3.5 in., Powder-coated steel wire and strip, on panel
Click the images below to see details and framed view.
Surfaces and Depths #12 (2013), 25.5 × 22.5 in., Colored collaged gels on paper
Surfaces and Depths #8 (2012), 25.5 × 22.75 in., Acrylic gels on paper
Surfaces and Depths #5 (2013), 20 × 24 in., Acrylic gels on paper
Surfaces and Depths #2 (2013), 22 × 25.5 in., Acrylic gels on paper
Surfaces and Depths #9 (2013), 25.5 × 23 in., Acrylic gels on paper
Surfaces and Depths #3 (2013), 18 × 19 in., Acrylic gels on paper
Surfaces and Depths #1 (2013), 25 × 32 in., Acrylic gels on paper
CLICK BOOK NOW TO SCHEDULE AN IN-PERSON OR VIDEO CHAT APPOINTMENT